Digital Cipher No. 11

I. Music & Tech

Reverb – Musicians Marketplace Raises $15M

Online musician’s marketplace Reverb, just raised $15 million with plans of expanding into international markets and building their vinyl business. As DIY artistry continues to grow and the resurgence of vinyl continues to accelerate the Reverb marketplace continues to see healthy growth. Read more here.

Snapchat Crowd Surfing

In an on going battle for users with Instagram Snapchat rolled out a very unique feature called “Crowd Surf”. Powered by artificial intelligence, “Crowd Surf” is able to analyze when there are a number of people recording the same musical performance at the same time. The technology then stitches together all the different angles, while keeping the song playing in succession. This experience is definitely something very unique to snapchat that reinforces the concept of a shared music experience. You can check out a “Crowdsurf” recording of Lorde’s performance at Outside Lands here. To read more check out this link.

Specdrums – Music at Your Fingertips

Specdrums are app-connected rings that use your surrounding colors to create a sound machine. Users can create beats and melodies by tapping on anything with color. From your clothes to a color coded keyboard, users literally bring the world around them to life by tapping rings on corresponding colors to create music. Check out their kickstarter here.

Lyric Speaker

In an evolving world of visual consumption the Lyric Speaker brings your music to life. When you play a song via the Lyric Speaker the built in Wifi searches the lyrics to the song and analyzes the mood, displaying both the words and algorithmically-created motion graphics on its translucent LCD screen. The price tag is about as high as the the technology is unique. Check it out here.

II. Entrepreneurship

Jay Z visits Rap Radar : A Dive into 4:44

The 4:44 album, made it quite clear that Jay Z is still evolving as an artist. While this should not come as a surprise from someone who clearly knows no limits, there seems to be plenty of “fans” that are still taken back by the nature of his latest content. Case in point, most album releases lose their momentum with the first few weeks of release, but much like the dynasty the conversation surrounding 4:44 seems like it will last at least three lifetimes. Last week, in yet another untraditional delivery, Jay Z sits down to a rare interview with Brian “B.Dot” Miller and Elliot Wilson of Rap Radar to discuss the gravity of his words, and the rare glimpse he offered of himself to his listeners. Check out the interview here.